I am like a remnant of a cloud of autumn uselessly roaming in the sky, O my sun ever-glorious! Thy touch has not yet melted my vapor, making me one with thy light, and thus I count months and years separated from thee.

If this be thy wish and if this be thy play, then take this fleeting emptiness of mine, paint it with colors, gild it with gold, float it on the wanton wind and spread it in varied wonders.

And again when it shall be thy wish to end this play at night, I shall melt and vanish away in the dark, or it may be in a smile of the white morning, in a coolness of purity transparent. Sri Rabindranath Tagore

D : Sri Bhagwan speaks of the Heart as the seat of Consciousness and as identical with the Self. What does the heart exactly signify?Sri Bhagwan: The question about the Heart arises because you are interested in seeking the source of Consciousness. To all deep thinking minds, the enquiry about the ‘I’ and its nature has an irresistible fascination.Call it by any name, God, Self, the Heart or the seat of Consciousness, it is all the same. The point to be grasped is this, that Heart means the very core of one’s being, the Centre, without which there is nothing whatever.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………D: In that case, how can it be localised in any part of the body?Fixing a place for the Heart would imply setting physiological limitation to That which is beyond space and time.Sri Bhagwan: That is right. But the person who puts the question about the position of Heart, considers himself as existing with or in the body. While putting the question now, would you say that your body alone is here but that you are speaking from somewhere else? No, you accept your bodily existence. It is from this point of view that any reference to a physical body comes to be made.Truly speaking, Pure Consciousness is indivisible, it is without parts. It has no shape, no ‘within’ and ‘without’. There is no ‘left’ or ‘right’ for it. Pure Consciousness, which is the Heart, includes all; and nothing is outside or apart from it. That is the ultimate Truth. From this stand-point, the Heart, Self or Consciousness can have no particular place assigned to It in the physical body. What is the reason? The body is itself a mere projection of the mind, and the mind is but a poor reflection of the radiant Heart. How can That, in which everything is contained, be Itself confined as a tiny part within the physical body which is but an infinitesimal, phenomenal manifestation of one Reality? But people do not understand this. They cannot help thinking in terms of the physical body and the world. For instance, you say, “I have come to this ashram all the way from my country beyond the Himalayas.” But that is not the truth. Where is a ‘coming’ or ‘going’ or any movement whatever, for the one, all-pervading Spirit which you really are? You are where you have always been. It is your body that moved or was conveyed from place to place till it reached this ashram. This is the simple truth, but to a person who considers himself a subject living in an objective world, it appears as something altogether visionary!It is by coming down to ORDINARY UNDERSTANDING that a place is assigned to the Heart in the physical body. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Dear devotees, Sri Bhagwan has taught that once we accept that from the true and absolute standpoint, the Heart as Pure Consciousness is beyond space and time, then it will become easy for us to understand the rest in its correct perspective. DIRECT PATH SOON ENOUGH REVEALS THAT THE HEART OR THE PURE CONSCIOUSNESS IS WHOLLY UNRELATED TO THE PHYSICAL BODY AND TRANSCENDS THE MIND, AS A MATTER OF DIRECT EXPEREINCE.

One does not find in Maharshi that type of Bhakti associated with devotional forms; but it can be said that if the way of Bhakti brings one to an expression of bounty and love towards all, He is that. His very nature becomes imbued with love. I should not omit here to mention a scene that I myself witnessed. At my request He recited certain lines from the composition of the Saint Sri Mannikavachagar, where the author spoke of the condition of the soul melted in love; hardly had the Maharshi pronounced a few lines when there was a brilliance in His face. He who rarely expresses in any outward form His inner emotion could not restrain a few silent tears. A slanting ray of the morning sun from the hillside made the scene still more vivid. A peace that passeth all understanding pervaded the whole atmosphere. For more than an hour there was perfect silence. It looked as if one of the fresco paintings of Ajanta had come to life! When the atmosphere was disturbed by a new visitor, I repeated before Him, as a parallel to the verse from Sri Mannikavachagar, the following lines from Wordsworth:

His spirit drank the spectacle,Sensation, soul and form all melted into him;They swallowed upHis animal being, in them did he live,And by them did he live; they were his lifeIn such access of mind, in such high hourOf visitation from the living God,Thought was not, in enjoyment it expiredRapt in still communion, that transcendsThe imperfect offices of prayer and praise,His mind was a thanksgiving to the powerThat made him; it was blessedness and love!Excursion—Wanderer

Maharshi followed very appreciatively this selection from Wordsworth and remarked to me in Malayalam—“How nicely they too have expressed these same high sentiments.”Source: Golden Jubilee Souvenir

For those who experience waking, dream, and sleep states, the State of Wakeful Sleep, which is beyond these three states is named Turiya (the Fourth).

Since that Turiya alone exists and since the seeming three stages do not exist,know for certain that Turiya is itself Turiyatita (that which transcends the fourth).

The Self is the witness of these states,that is called the fourth (Turiya).When this is known the three experiences disappear and the idea that the Self is a witness, that it is fourth, alsodisappears.

That is why the Self is describedas beyond the fourth (Turiyatita).

The Jnani, having transcended the three states, abides merelyas Pure Consciousness unaffected by the disposition of bodyand mind.

For Him Turiyatita is identical with Turiya and the other threestates do not exist for Him. Holding fast to the Truth,transcending the three states, LIFE ACTIVITY SHOULD BE VIEWED AS A LEELA (PLAY).

THEREFORE, THOSE WHO PURSUE JNANA-VICHARA SHOULD VIEW LIFE ACTIVITY AS A LEELA, A PLAY, AND THE PHENOMENAL WORLD AS A DREAM.

So, the world is a grand and wonderful stage, and ‘we’, the men and women, are merely players or the actors. Actors, we know, are not real. Who then are so called ‘we’? Sri Bhagwan has taught that Sat-Chit or the Existence-Consciousness is the One and only All-pervading Reality which does not say even ‘I’. We have become aware through the Enquiry that a non-entity—false, illusory and spurious— rises from and sinks into the Heart, or the Centre, which is the Core of our Existence and Awareness, and says ‘I’. It rises with the rise of a thought and sinks with it and therefore it is fleeting. Are we that fleeting, temporary non-entity which goes about throwing its weight around saying “I am so and so, you are you, he, she, it, and the world is ‘this’, I am I and every other one and thing is the ‘other’”, thus creating falsely division in Existence-Consciousness where there is none ? Therefore, Sri Bhagwan has taught that ‘I am’ is the Reality, and so, taught to ask ‘Who am I?’, get rid of ‘so and so’ on the Path, and abide as Pure Consciousness ‘I AM’.

Two days ago, a young man in ochre robes and belonging to the Ramakrishna Mission, asked, “What is meant by the ‘Fourth State’ (Turiyavastha)?”Sri Bhagwan replied, “There is no such thing as the Fourth State. Self Itself is the Fourth State.”“Why then do people say the ‘Fourth State’ and ‘Beyond the Fourth State’ (Turiya and Turiyatita)?” asked the questioner.Sri Bhagwan replied, “What there is, is one state only; you may call it Turiya or Turiyatita or what you like. The wakeful state (jagrat), the dream state (swapna) and the state of deep sleep (sushupti)—these three states go on changing like the scenes in a cinema. All the three are ideas of the mind. That which is beyond these three, and which is real and permanent, is the Self Itself. That is the state called the Fourth, the Turiya, state. In common parlance, people talk of the ‘Fourth State’ and of ‘Beyond the Fourth State’, and so on, but strictly speaking, there is only one state.”Letters from Sri Ramanasramam

Dear Devotees,

It follows from the above quote that there is only one Real State, that is, the State of Consciousness or Awareness or Existence, that is, the State of the Self. The three states of waking, dream, and deep sleep are illusory and cannot be real. They will come and go but the Real is forever, Existence Itself.

“THEREFORE, THE ‘I’ OR SELF OR EXISTENCE THAT ALONE PERSISTS IN ALL THE THREE STATES IS REAL. “

The morning sea of silence broke into ripples of bird songs; and the flowers were all merry by the roadside; and the wealth of gold was scattered through the rift of the clouds while we busily went on our way and paid no heed.

We sang no glad songs nor played; we went not to the village for barter; we spoke not a word nor smiled; we lingered not on the way. We quickened our pace more and more as the time sped by.

The sun rose to the mid sky and doves cooed in the shade. Withered leaves danced and whirled in the hot air of noon. The shepherd boy drowsed and dreamed in the shadow of the banyan tree, and I laid myself down by the water and stretched my tired limbs on the grass.

My companions laughed at me in scorn; they held their heads high and hurried on; they never looked back nor rested; they vanished in the distant blue haze.

They crossed many meadows and hills, and passed through strange, far-away countries. All honor to you, heroic host of the interminable path! Mockery and reproach pricked me to rise, but found no response in me.

I gave myself up for lost in the depth of a glad humiliation ---in the shadow of a dim delight.

The repose of the sun-embroidered green gloom slowly spread over my heart. I forgot for what I had travelled, and I surrendered my mind without struggle to the maze of shadows and songs.

At last, when I woke from my slumber and opened my eyes, I saw thee standing by me, flooding my sleep with thy smile. How I had feared that the path was long and wearisome, and the struggle to reach thee was hard!

D: How is one to realise the Self?Sri Bhagwan: Whose Self? Find out.D: Mine, but who am I?Sri Bhagwan: Find out yourself.D: I don’t know how.Sri Bhagwan : Just think over the question. Who is it that says “I don’t know?”D: Somebody or something in me. Sri Bhagwan : Who is that somebody? In whom?D; Perhaps some power. Sri Bhagwan : Find out.D: Why was I born?Sri Bhagwan : Who was born? The answer is the same to all your questions. D: Who am I then?Sri Bhagwan: (Smiling.) You have come to examine me? You must say who you are.D: However much I may try, I do not seem to catch the ‘I’. It is not even clearly discernible. Sri Bhagwan : Who is it that says the ‘I’ is not discernible? Are there two ‘I’s in you that one is not discernible by the other?D: Instead of enquiring ‘Who am I?’, can I put the question to myself ‘Who are you?’, since then, my mind may be fixed on You whom I consider to be God in the form of Guru. Perhaps, I would be nearer the goal of my quest by that enquiry than by asking ‘Who am I?’Sri Bhagwan: Whatever form your enquiry may take, you must finally come to the one I, the Self. All these distinctions made between the ‘I’ and ‘you’, Master and disciple etc. are merely a sign of one’s ignorance. The ‘I-Supreme’ alone is. To think otherwise is to delude oneself.Source: Maharshi’s Gospel

Dear Devotees,

Thus, we see that the Essence of Sri Bhagwan’s gospel is that the only Reality is the non-dual Self, and that it is to be realised through Self-enquiry or Atma-vichara. The Self is all. There is nothing other than the Self which is real. The Self is Sat-Chit Ananda or the Existence-Consciousness and Bliss. Remember, Existence, Consciousness and Bliss are not the attributes or qualities or the features of the Absolute, but different expressions indicative of One and the same Reality. IN THE SELF, EXISTENCE AND CONSCIOUSNESS ARE IDENTICAL AS IS EVIDENCED BY THE EXPEREINCE “I EXIST”. Sri Bhagwan has taught that unself-conscious existence is a contradiction in terms. It is no existence at all.

Dear devotees, the way to Realisation, as taught by Sri Bhagwan, is clearly, beyond doubt, is Vichara or Enquiry. The other methods cannot take us beyond the mind. Not for nothing Sri Bhagwan has compared the attempt to destroy the ego or the mind through sadhanas other than Atma-vichara to the thief turning out a policeman to catch the thief that is himself.

Dear devotees, Self-enquiry culminates in the suicide of the ego-mind. SELF-ENQUIRY PROVIDES AN INSTRUMENT WHEREBY THE MIND DESTROYS ITSELF, THUS REVEALING THE SELF.

Unexpectedly someone asked, “Nihilists and Advaitins go on arguing among themselves without end. What exactly are their differences?The clock struck the hour, ‘tung, tung”. With a smile, Sri Bhagwan said, “You want to know the differences of opinion? Look here. Just now, the clock has been wound; it has been working and has struck the hour. ‘There must be someone to wind the clock; otherwise the clock will not work,’ say the Advaitins. ‘It is admitted that there must be someone to give the power or the ability to that someone, and so on. If we proceed on that basis, there will be no beginning and no end, and so there is no such person as a doer (karta)’, say the Nihilists. These are the differences of opinion. For instance, take this towel. It is not separate from the cotton. What does that mean? The cotton is first changed into seedless cotton, then into yarn and finally into cloth. For doing all that there must be someone, and so the weaver is called the doer, and it is admitted that the various colours and varieties of a cloth are not different from the basic thing, namely, the cotton. In the same manner, the Advaitins say that though there is doer for the innumerable varieties that go to make up the world, none of them is different from that which Is, namely Existence (Sat). There must be pots—big and small—but they are all mere earth. If anyone of them gets broken, we say that the pot is lost. But what is it that is lost? Only the name and form. When name and form are lost, the earth still remains, as earth. But then, pots can be made only if there is a potter. So the Advaitins say there is doer as an efficient cause. Nihilists say, ‘No’. Arguments increase but the net result is zero. There will be no difficulties if they find out who it is that is arguing.”

“Why then these arguments?”, said the questioner. “That is because all which is inside of a person must come out. There will be several thoughts inside”, said Sri Bhagwan.

One of the devotees who heard this, said, “What, Bhagwan? You say that which is inside will always come out. How will it come out? What is there inside?”Sri Bhagwan smilingly said, “Unless there is something inside, how can anything come out? Unless some desire is born inside, nothing appears outside. Desire is born inside only. It develops into a big thing and come out ultimately.”Source: Letters from Sri Ramanasramam

Dear devotees, Crux of the matter is there will be no difficulties only if ‘they find out who it is that is arguing.’

“Vairagya is only one of the wings of the soul bird flying to its home. The other wing is viveka or discrimination. It is lack of viveka that is responsible for the pursuit of false ideals even in the realm of spiritually. For instance, many a practitioner of religion is dazzled by the supernormal powers (siddhis) which he acquires in the path, and by exercising them misguides both himself and those who blindly trust him. The Maharshi warns us in unambiguous terms against falling a prey to miracle-mongers. The desire for siddhis is the hallmark of bondage. It will lead us into greater darkness, making the chances of release more remote. So we must be on our guard. The greed for power in whatever shape or form must be rooted out. This could be done only by wielding ruthlessly the sword of Knowledge, that is, by realising that nothing short of the non-dual Self is to be recognised as the ultimate Truth. That it is possible to realise this Truth here and now is the supreme gospel which is taught by the Sage of Arunachala, sometimes by words but mostly through the Stillness of a divine Silence. We hear of Shuka and Yajnavalkya; and we read in historical times of Gaudapada and Shankara. But here we have before our very eyes a contemporary Witness to the Eternal Truth of the Vedanta, an eloquent commentary on the Upanishads. We for the most part seem to be so low in His Presence, bound as we are in the coils of time. But it will do us good if at least once in way we look to Him and take consolation in the hope that Supernal which is His may some day be ours.Source: Golden Jubilee souvenir

Dear Devotees,

Sri Bhagwan has taught that the obstacle is the mind. It must be got over whether in home or in forest. The authors in their article named ‘The Message of Bhagwan Sri Ramana’ maintain that the above Words of Sri Bhagwan should be interpreted with great care, for they were given in an answer to a grihastha or a householder who was trying to assess the relative value of his own asrama and sanyasa. Indeed, if one is keen on renunciation or sanyasa, he would not have argued or hesitated. ONE WHO FEELS THE BURNING HEAT OF A RED-HOT IRON ROD DOES NOT TAKE EVEN THE SPACE OF A MOMENT TO LET GO HIS HOLD OF IT. Final renunciation comes as the fruit of a long endeavour in spiritual culture. Therefore, what must be developed with zeal and endeavour in order to deserve it and succeed in enquiry is the inner spirit of detachment. TRUE VAIRAGYA MUST SPRING FROM WITHIN.

Reality is at once Being and Consciousness.To Know That is to be That in the Heart, transcending thought.

The sleeping ‘I’ is the Real ‘I’.That subsists all through.That is Consciousness.

The Self-conscious Being of ‘I’-lessness is Thatwhich is one’s true state realisedby destroying the ego through Self-enquiry.Know that the ego dies and the Self is That. Only that remains which is Consciousness Absolute.

Having enquired into the nature of all states, wakeful, dreaming and deep sleep, and ever holding steadfastly at heart to that same Supreme Which is Absolute and which is free from illusion, play in the world, O Raghava, the Hero !You have realised That in the Heart which is the Substratum of Truth of all appearances.

Therefore, without ever abandoning that right perspective,play in the world as you like.That which is the Source of all,That in which all live, and That into which all finally merge, is the Heart.

Five Verses selected from ‘ABHAYASHTAKAM’ composed by Atmavidyabhushanam, Sri Jagdiswara Sastri in Sanskrit:

O Lord, O Master Sri Ramana, we, afraid of worldly life with its evils and anxious to be freed from them, have sought refuge at Thy Feet. And yet some fear pursues us from our hidden foes; it nears; it grows irresistibly; it troubles us. Root it out, Lord, or else give us Sanctuary and give Thy Word, ‘FEAR NOT !’

The Upanishads say that fear will persist so long as the illusory perception of name and form persists. How can there still be fear of duality for us, who are within sight of Thee, who, firmly established in the non-dual Reality, shinest forth in Thine own peerless splendour? Or is the Upanishadic teaching of no significance?

May mind ever rejoice in the Lotus-Feet of Lord Sri Ramana ! May my mind drink the honey of words from His Lotus-Mouth ! May my mind ever meditate on His resplendent divine form! May the great Master Sri Ramana be my final Goal!

To Sri Ramana, the Supreme Teacher of Truth, the Holy Dweller in Sri Arunachala, self-controlled, with body self-endowed through maya, steadfast in the Self, with mind melting in love, calm, ascetic, affording Bliss to those immersed in the ocean of samsara, salutations for ever and ever.

Ever meditate on Sri Ramana, the foremost of Sages, Who is one with Lord Sri Arunachala, and who is the giver of bliss to all, as seated in the Lotus-pose, with a smiling face, embodiment of Lord Sri Dakshinamurty, clad in loin-cloth, ever absorbed in the inexpressible Glory of the Heart, shining by His own Light, with Eyes full of Grace and with devotees serving at His Feet.

Sri Bhagwan composed two Verses which explain the significance of Dipavali, the ‘festival of lights’. In ‘Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi’, Prof. K. Swaminathan’s translation of the two Verses have been included which are as following:

Dipavali

The demon Naraka (ego) who rules hell, (has)The notion ‘I am this body’,‘Where is this demon?’ enquiring thus With the discus of Jnana, Narayana Destroys the demon, And this dayIs Naraka-Chaturdasi.

Shining as the Self in gloryAfter slaying Naraka,The sinner vile who suffered muchBecause he deemed as ‘I’ the wretched Home of pains, the body of flesh—This is the festival of light,Dipavali.

Dear devotees, the body of flesh is the hell. The Demon Ego rules this hell which is the ‘home of pains’. We are the Self, True ‘I’ but deem the ‘body of flesh’, ‘the home of pains’ as ‘I’. Therefore, our foremost task in this life is to destroy this ‘Demon Naraka Ego’ by enquiring ‘Where is this Demon?’ Enquiry is the ‘discuss of Jnana’, the infallible weapon, which Sri Bhagwan gave us to slay this Demon Ego. THE DAY ON WHICH THIS DEMON IS SLAIN BY THE DISCUSS OF JNANA IS NARAKA-CHATURDASI.

An excerpt from an article named ‘Sri Ramana Maharshi’ authored by Sri Dilip Kumar Roy:

“And this oneness is concretely real, He (Sri Bhagwan) said, “if Y wants something from X let say, then X can hardly decline because in giving to Y, X only gives himself.”

Although such ideas are far from our consciousness yet I quote this because I find the thought too beautiful to be bypassed. Whether a sufficient number of humans will ever realise this ‘All is the same God’ as vividly as the Sages do so as to feel no longer any difference between mine and thine is another matter. However, to proceed, again:“But, Maharshi,” I asked after a hesitant pause, “why is it that the Bhakta (Devotee) so often turns away from a Jnani ( Man of Knowledge)? For this happens even after they arrived, doesn’t it?”Maharshi gave me a beautiful smile. I was reminded of a letter of our great novelist Sri Saratchandra writing about an English philosopher.“The other day,” he (Sri Sharatchandra, the great novelist from Bengal and author of the Bengali Classic Devadas, Anil) wrote to me, “I read Russel’s Outline of Philosophy. He has no end of compassion for the laymen. Poor things. Let me try to enlighten you somewhat. This kind of compassion permeates every line of his different exegeses. I often marvel at the vast gulf that separates a truly wise man from a charlatan.”

It is so true. For even when I could not fully take in what the Maharshi so indulgently explained to the poor thing that Dilip was, He made me feel how deeply compassionate He was even when He must have been smiling all the time at my foolishness.Sri Bhagwan: “But this is all wrong,” He said. “The premise I mean. For as soon as the Bhakta arrives he finds he is at one with the Jnani. For the Bhakta then becomes Bhakti-swarupa (the essence of Bhakti) even as the Jnani becomes Jnana-swarupa (the essence of Jnana) and the two are one, identical.” And He (Sri Bhagwan) added that this quarrel between Jnana and Bhakti is championed not by the authentic hierophants of each category but by the spurious specimens, the pseudo-bhaktas and pseudo-jnanis.

Dear devotees,

Sri Bhagwan has taught that when those who quarrel arrive they see the unwisdom of all such quarrels, because all are one and therefore how can one quarrel with oneself? Sri Bhawan is one of the greatest Jnanis who ever walked on this Terra Firma. Is He not also Bhakti-swarupa? Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa is one of the greatest Bhaktas the world has ever known. Is He not also Jnana-swarupa?